The European Journalism Centre (EJC) has announced the winners of the fifth round of the Innovation in Development Reporting (IDR) Grant Programme. EJC said 14 projects will be awarded a combined total of more than 250.000 euros in funding to advance development reporting and bring the public innovative journalistic storytelling around global development topics.

The final winners were selected at a meeting of the IDR Grant Programme Advisory Council, consisting of senior international journalists. The projects that have been identified to be eligible for funding will be greenlighted upon signature of a legal contract.

The awarded projects have received endorsement from significant media outlets located in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The winning projects touch upon multiple development issues, such as Bolivia’s intercultural healthcare system, the strengths and weaknesses of the polio eradication campaign, waste pickers in Haiti and India whose garbage is used as filament for 3D printers and the devastating impact of a tiny fungus on the most important crops in the world.

The winners have also been chosen due to their solid story outlines and innovative multi-platform approaches, operating on the crossroads between investigative, data-driven and visual journalism. The journalists also engage in cross-country media collaborations, hereby magnifying the visibility and impact of their stories. The winners of the fifth round will join on 25-26 June 2015 a two-day boot camp style conference allowing them to interact with fellow grantees. They will also work with trainers on the development of their stories and publication strategies aimed at achieving the best possible public impact.

“With this round of applications the total number of funded projects reaches 67, while our community consisting of grantees and their teams grows to more than 140 people. In 2015 and 2016, we have three more rounds of applications, which means that by the end of next year we will fund more than 100 projects! We are extremely proud to be supporting the work of an amazing community of journalists, who are doing an incredible job in putting development issues in the news and on the public agenda,” said EJC Director Wilfried Ruetten.